Charles A. Nelson , A. M., Waltham, past, present and its industries, with an historical sketch of Watertown from its settlement in 1630 to the incorporation of Waltham, January 15, 1739.

An Act passed May 28, 1760, by the General Court, for assessing the sum of £ 97,345 13s. 0d., levied upon Waltham £ 339 16s. 3d., Weston £ 302 4s. 0d., Watertown £ 374 14s. 4d., Lincoln £ 261 19s. 1d., Lexington £ 447 12s. 8d., Newtown £ 638 6s. 8d., which shows the relative valuation of these several towns at that date.

January 25, 1773, a letter was read in town meeting, received by the Selectmen from the town of Boston, complaining of the grievances the colonists labor under, and Jonas Dix, Esq., Captain Abijah Brown, Leonard Williams, Esq., and Deacon Isaac Stearns were appointed a committee to draw up a vote in answer and report.

September 30, 1774, Captain Abijah Brown, Leonard Williams, Esq., and Captain Jonathan Brewer were appointed a committee to draft instructions to their Representative respecting the several towns forming themselves into a Provincial Congress, and October 3d following Joshua Bigelow was chosen delegate to the Congress at Concord.

January 9, 1775, ‘The question was then put to know the minds of the town, whether they will all be prepared and stand ready equipt as minute men? And the town answered in the affirmative.’

How quickly the minute-men of the towns of Massachusetts responded to the call of their Committee of Safety, issued the day after the battle of Lexington, is too well known to be repeated here. Companies and ‘individual volunteers rushed from every quarter to the seat of hostilities.’ Stiles, in his Mss. Diary, writes that on Friday, April 21st, an American army of 20,000 men was assembled. On the 22d ‘many of the regiments were at Waltham and Watertown; but on the 26th they were ordered to march forward to Cambridge.’¹